#145 The Corners Of Your Life

Rachel Denning (00:00.654)
Good morning my friends. Oh man, welcome to another episode of the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. We are actually in Guatemala still and loving it. Having some extraordinary adventures here and man just having such a great time and so many cool experiences and connecting with old friends and new friends and remodeling our.

our little cottage here up in the mountains and which we're going to put on Airbnb. What an, what a, what a place, what an experience. It's incredible. Oh, that's awesome. Anyway, so I had, I had some great experiences. Well, this happened again and again and again over the years. So we, as you know, we've, we've been traveling all over the place for years.

And we've had the privilege then of staying in rental properties in places we've purchased and then later sold. We stayed with friends, stayed in Airbnb, VRBO bookings. We lead trips all over the world. So we stayed in different places with groups or with our family. So we've, we've literally had the cool opportunity to stay in hundreds of different places, which is actually pretty awesome, right? Cause it's again, every

Every new experiences is a new neural connection. It's a new perspective is new. Aha. So I love, love, love. You guys know this already. I love the idea of having as many experiences as possible because if we have the right mindset and attitude and observation and consciousness, every new experience adds to our perspective, to our understanding. It's like, you know, if you only read one book,

It's very limited, but if you read a thousand books or then 10 ,000 books, wow, right? It just expands your mind. If you only know a few people, then it's quite limited. But if you meet hundreds and hundreds and then thousands of people and have conversations across different topics and backgrounds and opinions and ideas and cultures and religion, again, the more experience you have, the better. So.

Rachel Denning (02:16.589)
with this one, it was been, it's been fascinating to stay in all these different places. And so actually I want to invite you to do that. This total side note here. I want to invite you to do that. Go stay in different kinds of hotels and different kinds of places. And we strategically do this with our kids very purposefully. I've shared this before. We will stay in very, um, rough places on purpose and then contrast that with really luxury places next or before or after, right on purpose.

so that the contrast provides a really blunt perspective. It's such a cool experience to experience all of that, to just hit it. Just bam! Hit it one and then the other. And then everything in between. So, right, experience super luxury. You know, take your family and save up for something, plan for it, do whatever, and stay in some really luxury places and have some really luxury experiences from, you know,

three star Michelin restaurants in Paris, which I love by the way, or there's four of them in Lima, Peru. You can go down there and then, you know, eat, eat some street food somewhere. In fact, Peru would be a great place where you could stay at these, some of the best restaurants in the world. And then some street food, which is actually really phenomenal. Super good. And you can stay in really nice mansions and then stay in little

Hostels and I are in a tent or just rough it just go out and sleep in the wilderness do all of it, right? Have those experiences, but we've done that so many times and we've seen different things and we did some more of it recently and so It sparked something for me that I've been thinking about for years and now just it all kind of came together and it's like yes This is a message. I've got to share So there's been times where we go into a place and

Whether again, you're visiting friends or you're staying at Airbnb or you're going wherever. And you notice that some things are great and some things are just kind of left undone. And it might be workmanship. You might be go in and the sitting area or the porch, the pool area is amazing. And you go in and the kitchen's really old and outdated and clunky and the cupboards are broken and the fridge is...

Rachel Denning (04:45.325)
not working. Right. And this is interesting. We stayed in this really massive luxury Airbnb on the beach not long ago and the kitchen was pathetic. It was it was ridiculous. It was embarrassing. It didn't it didn't fit with the house at all. Like what in the world is this ridiculous. And then but again it could be it could be the workmanship that you go in and the doors don't.

They squeak and they don't close right, the windows don't quite work or maybe you go and the house is nice and the yards aren't done. The yard's nice and the house is a joke. Or you go in and you just find this little corner and here's where I wanna drive home the message and please don't misunderstand me, I'm not throwing anybody under the bus here. I'm not condemning anyone. I think as we'll talk about today, I think all of us do this and we wanna work towards a place where we don't.

but I think it's just kind of the way we, we grow up or thinking or life or whatever, right? We just kind of have these little corners that we leave undone, uncared for. And you know, sometimes I've gone in and, and you know, one area of the house is clean and another area is just a disaster. And you go around the corner or in the back little room and, and there's like garbage or just.

junk piles of junk and just unorganized, unorganized chaos. Right. And I think we can all relate to this. We're like, Oh yeah. You know, we, many of us, if not all of us have this little corner of things that have been neglected or not been cared for, taken care of or organized or, you know, really put, put in order in our lives. And I guess that's, that's the main message I want to drive home today.

is that we need to look at the corners of our rooms or our garages or our yards or our bodies or our minds. Maybe there's, um, and we're going to do this today. I want to invite you to do a whole life examination. We're going to examine your entire world today. This is my invitation. Looking for those corners.

Rachel Denning (07:11.789)
that have been neglected and left undone. They just haven't been attended to. And maybe it's just like, hey, I'm gonna get to them, but you haven't gotten to them. Or sometimes you literally have a pile of garbage and it's just disgusting. Maybe you have a part of your life or your room or your garage or your yard that you haven't maybe shed, that hasn't been cleaned out. And it's cobwebs and animals or just there's been some trash or just some junk just left there and it's just.

You know that that corner, the far corner of the pasture or something or the barn or whatever that just hasn't been cleaned up. And the same is true in our minds or even on our bodies where we'll come back to that. Right. But the mental, especially might be a little corner of the mind, so to speak, that it's experiencing some mental atrophy. Maybe a corner of the mind that is dark with ignorance and it just hasn't been addressed.

or enlightened. There might be a corner of your mind that's a really, it's a fixed mindset. This comes up a lot. And I hear about it probably daily where either I'm working with somebody and they're like a fixed mindset comes up or they're trying to improve their lives, but they're surrounded by people with fixed mindsets or sometimes it's a spouse or a child or.

Extended family friends neighbors co -workers have a really fixed mindset how in the world do you even deal with people that have such a fixed mindset? I had a really great conversation last night actually with with this wonderful lady who's She's also doing coaching and she was talking about a client hers. It just was such a fixed mindset and victimism Everything was somebody else's fault, right?

and circumstances, people, and you know people like this, maybe you've been one of those people. I know I lived in victimville for a while, right, in my mind, where it was always somebody else and you just feel like, there's nothing I can do about this, I can't do anything about that, it's out of my control. And when we have this mindset, this corner of our mind that's just everything is somebody else's fault. All the outcomes of my life, it's other people, it's not me. Right, and when you have that fixed mindset of victimism, you...

Rachel Denning (09:32.909)
Nobody can help you. Well, that's true anyways, right? Nobody can help you. We always have to help ourselves. But with that little mindset, you got a little corner mindset there, victimism, and maybe it's a certain part of your life. You think, over here, yeah, total responsibility, I can do something about this, and maybe you have a little corner of your life, it's just like, no, there's nothing I can do about it. It's out of my control. When in reality, there's a lot more you can do about it. Maybe it's an attitude, right? A little corner of your mind with a bad attitude. And again, it might be a little corner.

You might have a fantastic attitude towards travel or work or entrepreneurship. I mean, all these different stuff, right? Exercising and challenges and all that stuff, but you might have this little corner of your mind around connecting to your siblings or with kids, right? I see it with parenting sometimes. They wanna be parents, they love parents, but they just have this...

really bad attitude towards maybe towards teenagers, right? They've picked up this common talk, oh, teenagers, all this, all that, and these bad on teenagers, and you just kind of adopted it, and you have a really bad attitude towards teens, right? And so there's all this stuff, or maybe there's a corner of your mind, and I really want to hit this one hard here. There might be a little corner of your mind that harbors these inappropriate thoughts.

And it might be inappropriate in that it's angry or bitter or mean or jealous or perverted or lustful. Maybe it's a little corner of your mind where you got some some dirty thoughts there and you haven't cleaned it out and they're lingering. They're not always there. They don't always pop up, but but they do pop up.

and maybe it's thoughts of adultery or pornography or even vengeful, hateful acts, acts of violence or revenge. You know what I'm saying? We might have, and I've found this a lot with a lot of people I work with, there's a corner of the mind that is harboring some dark things and needs to be cleaned out.

Rachel Denning (11:57.837)
and I wanna hit that home. And so as we do our full life examination today, we're gonna examine the corners of your mind and I want you to be honest, like maybe you've been holding onto this grudge or holding onto something or just this terrible thinking or dirty thinking or whatever it is. We've gotta clean out the corners, my friends. That is my main message today and I wanna drive this home because it matters so much, right? In my Be The Man Masterclass, I have a...

full training on holistic optimization. And I think this is a, this is a critical component of what I've learned over the last 25 years of devouring peak performance and studying the lives of great men and women and traveling literally all over the globe, meeting with people and examining the difference between success and failure and looking at successful people and unsuccessful people and happy people and miserable people. And one of the things I found,

is that we have to approach life with a holistic perspective. We have to get the whole picture. In fact, I'll even give you a definition right now of holistic that it's a philosophy characterized by the comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. Right. And so we have to examine our whole lives. We can't think that, Oh, that little corner of this won't affect me. It does.

Everything affects everything. And that's why I really dig into this, into that training. And it's my whole coaching philosophy. It's my whole life philosophy is like, it has to be a holistic optimization that we have to optimize, get everything operating exactly as it could. And, and that room can't function and that closet can't function and your body can't function and your family can't function and your business can't function. If you have this little corner that's uncared for, it just can't function. It's full capacity.

That makes sense? Let's take your pantry, for example. The part of your pantry you just, has a pile of junk or your closet, take your closet. And it's just got all this stuff piled over. You haven't touched it for a while. It's just unorganized chaos. And it's part of your garage. You can't even fit in your garage anymore because you've got this one pile of stuff that's been, you know, boxes that still haven't been unpacked from the last time you moved or these things you bought or inherited.

Rachel Denning (14:19.117)
Like from your parents or your say, oh, hey, take this and you piled some other. And now you're barely squeezing in or you can't park in there anymore. And you can't even have used the space, right? Because of the corners. You guys with me? I'm trying to illustrate this in many ways possible. So we all see that like, we all have these little corners that need to be cleaned out and taken care of, where the dust kind of gathers and the dirt and it just kind of keeps getting pushed over into the corner. And we're like, I'll get to it, I'll get to it. But we don't.

And so unless we approach life with holistic optimization, meaning I'm going to take every area of my life, I'm going to optimize it. So I get it operating at a phenomenal level. And that includes cleaning out the corners and getting the junk and the trash out of there. And we have to stop tolerating that kind of behavior of ourselves, which is amazing because I meet people and I'm thinking of some specific people that I just absolutely love and admire, just love and admire.

And as a person, they dress nice, they're clean, they're neat, they have wonderful hygiene, they're articulate, they're well -educated, just awesome. But in their house, in their house and yard, they've got these spots that don't line up with that. It doesn't match at all. It's so incongruent. Because as a person, they're wonderful, even spiritually, and as people with characteristics and high integrity, and yet there's this part of their yard that's just...

disgusting. It literally is a pile of garbage or a corner of the house. You're like, really? Like that's is totally uncared for. And again, I'm not please don't misunderstand me. I'm not condemning here. I'm not throwing anybody under the bus. Because I think in some ways we all do it. We all have this corner. It's like, it's again, it's a it's the it's the relative weight of importance, right? We all put we prioritize our lives differently. We're thinking, well, this is more important. And so we neglect that on purpose, or

by procrastination or by default, we just don't touch it because I'm going to focus over here and leave that alone. My invitation is to say, if we're going to maximize our full potential, then we have to go through every area of our life and clean out the corners. Now, here's what's interesting. A lot of people think that's not possible, right? Many, many people believe that, right? You can't possibly be good at all the important areas of life. You can't clean out all the corners, right? There's all, and if we believe that though,

Rachel Denning (16:45.805)
That limits us. Why not choose to believe that we can, that we can systematically and strategically go through every corner of our lives and get all the junk and dust them out and clean it one at a time. We go through and just clean it all out and then set up strategies to keep it clean. Right? It's our habits and our patterns that have created the dirt and the dust and the crap in the corner, the pile of junk. And so if we eliminate that habit, it won't gather there. And when it starts to gather, we're like, oh, it's gathering again. Clean it out real quick.

Right, just a quick clean. But when you go through, if some of you have piles, whether it's in your shed or your garage or your desk, or your life or your business or your finances, whatever corner's been neglected, it may take some time to get that thing thoroughly cleaned out, right? You might have literally or figuratively a couple of storage units full of junk that you gotta go through, and you go through them. But then when it starts, you don't let it happen again. You with me? And man, this stuff is critical because,

No area of our life will function at its full capacity if the corners are neglected, so to speak. Are you with me on the whole metaphor here of the corners just piling up? I'm sure you are. So I wanna drive that home. No area of our life will function at its full capacity, full optimization if the corners are neglected. And then the other areas of our life, and this is where people who are unsuccessful, they don't get this. They're like, ah, no, it doesn't matter. It won't affect that. How in the world can that...

affect this because they seem so unrelated. But what I've seen again and again, that we can't be holistically optimized in all areas of our life, if one of the corners over here is neglected. Right? So if the corner of our relationship with one of our kids is really bad, that is you know this, right? Because it takes a mental thought and emotional energy and worry and fear and doubt and then

and the fights and the long, long night talks and the problems on the resources. And it starts to carry over into everything else. So let's not pretend that some areas of our life don't affect the others. It does. Everything affects everything. And I want to encourage, I want to drive this home so powerfully because I've done it in my own life in holistic optimization. And I help, this is what I can help people do every day. This is what I get to do. It's amazing. It's amazing.

Rachel Denning (19:10.317)
And this is what I'm helping men do as part of my life's work. If you're a man and you're not yet in the masterclass and tribe, please join us. Make the commitment and investment to yourself, your life. If, and if you're a woman listening to this, you know, a man who wants to be the best wants and needs to be the best husband and father and leader and businessman. Get in there. This is what it's all about. It is what it's all about. Just getting holistic optimization, but

But unsuccessful people will think it's not related or that it can't be done. And I want to, I want to assure you that it can. And man, if I can do it, anyone can do it. And, and I'm, and I'm training and coaching people to do it all the time. And they're making massive, massive progress and total transformations in their lives. And it really comes down to tools and strategies and resources and the right kind of thinking and the right kind of habits. So it's totally possible. You can.

get into and stay into the best health of your life. And you can have a phenomenal, loving, romantic relationship with your with your spouse. You can win at work and at home. You can do all this stuff. You really can. But it starts with cleaning out the corner. So here we go. I want you to do it mentally right now and then do it physically after you're done listening podcasts. In fact, if you're if you're listening to this, your headphones or something, you might start walking around. But don't don't get this. Don't get too distracted.

but maybe grab a notebook, a pen and paper or open up a document on your phone or something. And let's mentally go through your whole life. And then I want you to physically go through and get hands on and let's clean out the corners of our lives. So today I want you to examine your whole world. You start with your mind. And we did this hard before. Are there areas that are experiencing atrophy or ignorance? Prejudice I find comes from these dark little corners.

where maybe we just don't, literally don't know anybody. We don't personally know anybody from that region of the world or from that religion or from that perspective or that background. It pops up a lot, oh my goodness, I hear it all the time around religion and politics and of course racism. It's just those dark little corners that are uninformed. And we have a lot of really strong, uninformed opinions.

Rachel Denning (21:37.549)
because of the dark corners of our mind where we've been told again and again and then we go looking for confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is we have this idea, we hold onto it, we have our blinders on, we're very narrow -minded and we go looking for confirmation for what we believe and we see a couple examples and we're like, ha ha, see, that's the way they are, I knew it and they're all like that. Anytime you catch yourself saying they're all like that, Republicans are this way or Democrats are that way or Muslims are this way or Mormons are that way or.

Mexicans or that like whatever you find yourself saying that like stop and Realize there's some corners of your mind that needs some cleaning. Oh That's a big one, man. I get so fired up about that and and again We've been exposed to it, right and it happens us all the time because we want to have experiences and we meet new people and see new things and understand new perspectives and go oh well, I just just shed a little light on this corner of my perspective that I'm sweeping out right now because I

I've been piling up some thoughts, some beliefs, some ideas, some opinions there that are unfounded and uninformed. So go through your mind. Where are you experiencing some ignorance? Where do you have fixed mindsets? What areas of your life has a little corner of a fixed mindset? Where you think you can't do anything about it? Is it your health? Is it your ideas about marriage, about family?

So sometimes we do this with people, right? We think, oh, I have a kid and he's just this way. And so we create these little corners in our minds about this, just the way he is, or just the way I am, or just the way things are. If you live in a certain area, oh, this is just the way, I mean, switch it, clean that corner out. You guys with me on this? This is so powerful. And I think it's exciting, but it's also a little intimidating. It's a little bit hard. You're going to find some corners, I think.

If you're like most of us, you're gonna find some corners that are pretty uncomfortable and dirty and start out like, oh, I gotta go through that crap. And it's gonna stir up some emotions. Some of you are gonna shed some tears and feel some, wow, you're gonna feel some intense emotions. And there's gonna be some internal struggles and there might be some external struggles. And cleaning out some of the corners that are related to other people, you might.

Rachel Denning (23:59.789)
There might be some things there where you're going to have to work through diplomatically with other people to get those things cleaned out. Are there corners of your attitude that have been kind of cruddy? Your attitude about things you need to do or want to do or should do your attitude towards other people, your attitude towards life in general or certain parts of your life. Um, are there inappropriate thoughts you need to clean out? Like we talked about before. So go through your mind next spirit.

examine your spirit. We're all spiritual beings. And so I want you to examine your spiritual life and look in the corners. Are there areas that need to be cleaned up and cleared out? Do you have spiritual corners where you've not been living in congruence with your values? Maybe a little corner there where you don't have values or maybe a little corner where you don't want to have values. You know what I'm talking about?

You got that little corner, you're like, well, maybe it's a little bit of dishonesty. A little bit, maybe exaggeration or gossiping. Maybe it's low standards that you've kind of been letting things slide a little bit. You're a little shoddy because you don't want to do the work to clean things up. Maybe you've made some mistakes or have some things buried back there and you need to take care of them. You bring them in light and clean them up.

and go through. So you guys are now this is not Sunday school. The word repent is based on it's a lot based on rethink. So repentance means rethinking. So this is actually awesome. So I think I think repentance isn't isn't strictly a religious thing. It's it's how we do life we rethink things we repent we repair, right, we fix things that have been off or broken. So some of us need to do some repenting in that we do some rethinking.

about what we've done. We ask for forgiveness for our mistakes and we make things right with people. And we clear up this we have that inner peace. A lot of you are lacking inner peace and you struggling with some serious inner turmoil because some corners of your spirit are not good. So go through that then your body examine area every area of your body.

Rachel Denning (26:19.405)
And so where are the corners that have been neglected? For some of you might be your, you have that little junk that you just keep consuming. Uh, for others, it might be a part of your body. You just haven't gotten into shape, right? It might be your belly or your butt or some areas. Not bad. It might actually honestly be an injury and injury. You haven't rehabbed. You haven't taken care of you. You've been dealing with it. You're like, ah, you know, for me, it's been lately. I've this, I don't know how it happened, but, um, my Achilles is just been causing me a lot of problems. I need to address that, right? I can't just keep.

keep dealing with it. So you might have a knee injury, a hip injury, an elbow injury, a shoulder pain, or maybe it's just a pain. You just keep going on and you're like, no, that needs to change, man. Maybe it's your energy levels. Maybe it's your sleep, right? You don't sleep very well or you can't do certain things. Don't just leave that as a dirty little corner of your life. Examine it, bring it to light. Say, what area of my body needs to be cleaned up and taken care of? And it's interesting. Some people like...

They have this immaculate house and yard and their body's unkept. They might have poor hygiene or they just have never learned how to do their hair or they don't shower regularly or brush their teeth. Might have dental work. Maybe you need dental work, right? Maybe that's just the corner of your life. You just never addressed and you got crooked teeth or teeth that are, you know, you got cavities or broken or whatever and struggling. And I've, I've met people like this. You have too, right?

where they have a dental problem and they're just constantly like, ah, they're putting their hand up on their cheek, oh, it hurts all the time, they're picking at it all the time, every time they eat, ah, and they don't do anything about it. Right? So like examine it, like this is, and again, I'm trying to do this lovingly as possible and not with any kind of condemnation or judgment or throwing you behind a bus. Like, I think we all do this. And so if yours is like dental, take care of it. If it's your toenails, like,

Take care of it, right? There's your feeders, your armpits. I don't know what it is. I'm just throwing all kinds of stuff out here of all the people we've met. I've met people like some people, and you have to, right? They just always stink. Always, always, always stink. Okay, let's figure that out, man. Figure that out. Or, you know, it's your clothes. You always just wear these junky clothes. Well, figure it out. What would you do as your best self, your absolute best self? If you're fully optimized, what would you do?

Rachel Denning (28:43.149)
Again, I'm throwing out tons of ideas here. So we wrap our minds around these concepts. And again, some of us might be fantastic with our bodies, but weak with our spirits or minds. So next go to your bed. Is your bed neat? Do you make it every morning? Is it really like, is it comfortable? Is it clean? Do you really spend a third of your life in that place? Like invest in the quality. Some of you might be sleeping on a bed that this is.

just uncomfortable all the time. Well, and there's times to do that. I think you maybe ought to sleep, I think all of us ought to sleep on the floor at least once a month, just to remind ourselves. Sleep house, sleep in different places, do that. But get comfortable bed, man, and then make it, and make it look nice. Get good sheets and a good mattress and a good blanket and make it nice, right? Examine your bed and then your bedroom. Look around. Look in the literal corners and then the walls and the ceiling. You might have...

cracks or holes or gaps or you know, you've been telling yourself you need to fix it up. Do you have artwork, lighting that is inspiring and uplifting? We've got to create these spaces in our lives that help us be optimized. Does this make sense? Sometimes people discount that like, oh, it doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter what's on my wall. It doesn't matter where I am. And I get it. I get that philosophy like it, okay, don't blame it on your...

your conditions or your surroundings, just be your best. And I get that. And at times I'll preach that same thing, but then don't, we can't neglect the fact that our surroundings affect us big time and little adjustments in the area where we work and live and sleep and where we are, where we spend our lives, little adjustments, cleaning out the corners will make a massive difference in the feeling and the energy and the spirit and the, just the whole experience of it all. So,

Look at the paintings, look at the artwork, look at the candles, the lighting, maybe you got a dinky little crap light up there and you've been complaining for months or years, ugh, it's not a light, that is ridiculous. And just go buy a new light fixture, throw a new light, maybe you have light bulbs. I know people are like, I know I'm not like, oh, that light bulb's been out forever, I have to go get a ladder and there's no light bulb. Just do it, man, clean out the corners of your life and make sure the lighting's good and the pictures, the paintings, the whole feeling is fantastic.

Rachel Denning (31:08.365)
Now go examine your closet. Again, mentally first and physically. Examine your closet. Are there areas of your closet that need to be cleaned out? Are the corners of your closet, so to speak, are there piles of shoes or clothes that you haven't worn that you don't like, you've just been holding onto, you need to clean those out? Or maybe you need a new wardrobe. I know I did, I was going through the time, I'm like, I don't need, I'm not gonna spend money on clothes, it's dumb. I was wearing the stuff and it looked shoddy, it looked unprofessional.

Blah, right? And again, I get it. I'm on the other side too. Like just wear that thing until it falls off your body. Okay, whatever. I get that. I have a pair of shoes that I literally ran through and my toes are sticking out on both sides and I'm still like working in them, right? They become my work shoes now. And these are, those are super nice, expensive shoes, right? I paid a lot of money for them and then just wore them right to pieces and I still, now they're my work boots. But you with me on that? Like.

Go through everything, go through, if you need a new pair of shoes or a completely new wardrobe, some of you need to get a new wardrobe. You need to change that up. You need to come into this decade, or for some of you, into this century. Like, hey man, your clothes are all over 20 years old, like, it'd be okay if you upgrade a little bit, update a little bit. So go through your closet, then go to your bathroom. The corner's your bathroom, the corner's your shower.

It's amazing. Like it's still, it still blows me away that some people like now whatever and the shower just is disgusting. You know, and they're clean people, neat people, everything great. You know, my running a great business, whatever. And then the shower is gross or the bathroom is gross or under the bathroom sink or the toilet. Like do it, just clean it up, get it neat and nice. Where are you walking in? Like, wow. Like it's a nice hotel. Turn your house into a nice hotel because

You go, you go to some resort or some retreat or some nice hotel. You say great. You're like, this is great. It feels fantastic. And if you need a higher help, do it. Hire someone to come over once a week and do a deep clean on your bathrooms. Is it, is this making sense? This is hitting home. I know I'm, I know I'm going fast and hitting all kinds of stuff, but it really does make a difference. And when, when your bedroom and your bathroom and your body all feel clean and neat and inspiring.

Rachel Denning (33:30.093)
and there's no dirty little corner that's just like, eww, that makes you cringe. Or that sometimes you're totally unaware of. I've met people like that and there's been times in my life too where I've been unaware of the corners and somebody has to point it out. I'm like, oh, yeah, I haven't looked over there for years or ever. I was never trained, I never knew I was there. I was never, because we're unconscious a lot of times, right? We have our blind spots and our unconscious spots. So maybe there's been part of your life where you're like, hey, you gotta clean that up, man. I go, yeah.

Right? And so get your bathroom, make your bathroom inspiring. Most of us get ready in our bathrooms or closets. Think about it. We're getting ready for the day in a place that's uninspiring. And you're like, oh, it doesn't affect me. It doesn't matter. I get it. Right? And I could get ready for an awesome day from a prison cell.

Or some shack somewhere I could do it But if we have a choice and we're gonna be doing that day in and day out Why not have a place that actually inspires you put up some quotes again some artworks and things that some some souvenirs from around the world That's what we do. We decorate our houses with these Beautiful and inspiring souvenirs from around the world. We go all around the world. We find this just handmade artwork paintings pictures carvings little artistic designs things that just

bring back beautiful memories and inspiration. And we put those things all around. So now we're here, you know, remodeling this whole cottage. And it's with, with stuff from around the world and, and make, if you get ready in the bathroom or closet, make that place inspiring. So you're getting ready for the day in an inspiring place in an inspiring way. Um, look at your kitchen, go to your kitchen, what corners of your kitchen need to be cleaned out.

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sink cupboards, you might have junk plates and bowls, garbage drawers. I bet, I bet that most of you, not all of you have some kitchen drawer that's just, it's the, it represents the corner of this, this pile of garbage and it needs to be organized or dumped or gotten rid of. Like clean up your kitchen, make it, make it a master chef's kitchen. Like make it awesome. Where you go in there. I mean, think, think about that. If you, if you do a lot of your,

eating in your life in your kitchen, like think how much of our lives we spend in the kitchen. You know, if we're going in there three or four, five, six times a day, make it inspiring in both what it contains. So the plates, bowls, dishes, silverware, the way it's decorated, right? It makes a difference. There's a feeling. Every area, every space has a feeling. Have you guys noticed that? You'll notice it when you go to really nice restaurants or really nice places. Again, this is one perspective you're getting from staying in a lot of different places.

It might even be small. It might even be simple, but it's neat and it's clean and it's inspiring. It has an energy. So if you're going to be in there and again, it affects our food, affects our health, affects our mindsets. If we're going to be three or four or five, six times a day in a space, let's make it a space that's wow, right? Clean and neat and sharp and make it sparkle. You're like, I have kids. Train your kids. Don't, don't play the victim there. Train your kids. And yes, it takes a lot of training and time and conditioning, but train your kids to take care of it.

clean up after themselves. If you have to hire help, hire help. We have hired help, right? Because we prioritize our lives. And I think, I think hiring help and outsourcing in a lot of areas of your life is so important. Right? So we outsource the cleaning. We outsource a lot of cooking right now. We have a full time cook and we have a full time cleaner. Right. And, and it just, man, just get that all decked out. Now the

The pantry is part of the kitchen, right? So go through every area of the kitchen and the pantry and your fridge. Oh man, some of you will have a disgusting little corner of your fridge you gotta clean out. We've seen that all over the world. We go places like, oh, and then sometimes it's the content. You got some seriously disgusting food in there and it's just like, it's junk food. It's unhealthy food in your pantry, your fridge. Get rid of that. Part of the cleaning out the corners of our lives is getting rid of the, that stuff that you know you should not be putting in your body.

Rachel Denning (37:50.989)
Go through your pantry and clean it and get rid of anything that should not be going in your body or your kids body. And you know what's interesting? I hear this a lot that the parents will buy things for their kids that they would never touch. I mean, it's just as liquid poison or just junk. And I was for the kids. They just they want anything else. Bogus. They'll eat exactly what like you train and condition them to eat. Right. And again, it's just this is a whole.

parenting topic. That's stop playing the victim. So act like you're out of control and your kids control everything. Oh, they won't touch. I want this. I have to buy all this. My pantry stack with junk food and garbage because it's the only thing my kids will eat. No, no, no. Stop blaming on the kids. I'm being blunt here. I'm coaching right here. So I still love you guys. Stop blaming on the kids.

Learn how to prepare delicious food. Stack your pantry with good, healthy stuff and guess what? Your kids will start eating it.

and help them understand why. And again, training and conditioning. So they're turning to healthy fruit and vegetables and healthy snacks instead of just the garbage. Clean out that pantry. Now go to your family room. Same thing. What are the conditions of the chairs and the couches and the carpet and the rugs and the paintings and the pictures? And clean it up. For some of you, you need to get rid of the TV. It's consuming your life. And it's that spot that's just keeping you from holistic optimization.

TV's got to go and it needs to be replaced with like a bookshelf. And some of you, your bookshelf needs to be cleaned up and updated, needed some more books on that bookshelf. So you need some more inspiring quotes and ideas and, and, and change the whole, you know, the whole culture, whole message. Isn't that interesting? Every, every room in our house can have a message. Our whole house has a message. Our whole lives have a message. So the corners of a room might have a message. The family room has a message. What's the focal point of your family room?

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What's the setup, the arrangement of your family room? You know, the couch is worn out and junk and there's stuff everywhere. Under the couch is just full of junk food and coins and pens and batteries and all that stuff. You know, are you scared to lift up and move the couch? Cause it hasn't been moved forever or behind the fridge or you know what I'm saying? And then so it has a message and what's the message of your family room? Man, I love this stuff. Are you guys geeking out about this? I hope you're loving this and joining us. What's the message there?

What's the matter is it like lounging and sloppy and just, you know, you got these kids sprawled out across the couch and it's ironically that same kid that has a sprawled out life that's not really motivated, not really going anywhere, not working on goals and things. What's the message of your family room? Change the message, clean out the corners. Right? I love this stuff. Let's go to your office.

your office either in your home or your little workspace there or at your actual office if you go out to the office or whatever that is. Examine your desk or your table or your work area. Do it mentally and then do it physically. Examine your drawers. Examine the tools you have. Is it chaotic? Are your papers everywhere and pens everywhere? You never find a pen, right? I have a client that I just absolutely love every single time we meet.

Where's my pen? I don't have a pen. I can't find a pen. I spent the first little bit looking for a pen. Right? Get organized people. Get get and buy it. I have an awesome, awesome pen. It was a gift from a great friend. I love it. Just absolutely really high quality, nice pen. And get your nice journal. While we're at it with your computer, are there corners of your computer that need to be cleaned out? You know, either literally or or figuratively.

You got junk on there, viruses on there, that's slow, you got this whole computer just takes time to boot up and you can't figure it out, it's not working. Get a new computer. I mean, you gotta update these things every couple years because the advances are unbelievable. I mean, really it's outdated by the time you open it out of its box, because there's new technology coming, but I would say every two to three, four years, you gotta just throw down, update it, because you need a new operating computer. Some of you, I know people that they've been using the same computer for the last 15 years. I'm like, 15 years?

Rachel Denning (42:11.885)
Those computers don't even work anymore and you're still trying to, you're still trying to do stuff on there. So clean out the junk. Maybe you have just tons and tons and tons of files on there. It doesn't only be deleted and clear your space. So go through your whole office. Your office has a message. Your office has an energy. Maybe you're not being very productive or effective because you're working in a, just a terrible workspace. So clean it up, make it inspiring, make it neat, make it clean, bring in some light, get some lighting in there and get it.

all clean and organized and neat and have a clean workspace. You go in and you just feel inspired and then you can sit down, you do great work and you can do it efficiently and effectively. So what are the corners, the corners of your office and you can take care of? Go to your storage room. What's in your storage room? All this stuff for your garage.

Go through every corner, go through all this stuff. Get rid of stuff that you don't use anymore. Get rid of stuff that's outdated and old, just donate it or throw it away. Get that storage room all cleared out so it actually serves its purpose. Do the same thing in your garage. Let it serve its purpose. Your garage, man, we've stayed in houses where the garages are unbelievable. In fact, my whole family, we all talk about this one house we rented for, we were there for like nine months and the garage was amazing.

It was so clean and neat. The floor had been painted and sealed. Everything was done to perfection. So, you know, those undone garages and the entire thing. It was a huge, huge garage. The entire thing was lined with just beautiful closed cabinets. So everything stayed in neat and clean, huge workspace, plenty of room for all the vehicles and to do projects and work and bikes and stuff. It was amazing. I mean, we loved being in the garage because it was so awesome, right?

Do that. Go through your whole life and you're like, oh, it's so expensive. It's so hard. Oh, I don't have time. Make time. Make the resources. Earn the money. Again, this holistic optimization. Take your whole life and get it to the level of your absolute best self. What would your best self do? What kind of garage would your best self have? What kind of storage room would your best self have and manage? You can do this. You just have to learn how to be more optimized. And the more things you optimize, the more...

Rachel Denning (44:24.237)
time, resources, space, energy, productivity, efficiency you have. Like I always tell them my coaching client says, and this is the major message in the Beat Amount Masterclass. Like we're going through your whole life and everything you optimize, you get better at it. So you can do far more in less time and with less stress. We've got to increase our capacity. And we do this by going through the corners of our lives. So go through the garage, now go out in the yard. Every area of yard. What would the yard of your best self be?

Right. And, and we're again, we're down here doing this whole project down here with the whole property that in the house and the property had been that we left years ago and didn't come back. Right. And when we bought it, we bought it as a, it's the property where we do like our humanitarian projects, right. For Cultiva. And so we haven't touched this place for years and years and years. And so we're coming in and, and we're going to gradually transform.

everything, the house, the yard, everything and make it awesome. And so go, go through in your mind, if you own multiple properties, I know some of you own multiple properties. So you just live in an RV trailer or, you know, you have a beautiful ranch or an apartment in the city or whatever, like take your space, whatever it is and say, well, how would this be as my best self? Make it awesome. Make it inspiring. Make it a place where not only you want to be, but other people want to come.

And we're going to have multiple properties around the world. And I've told you about, you know, our, our big dreams, our French, our French Chateau, right? Is where we're heading as soon as the world opens up. And again, we've got it all planned out. We have it all planned out and dream of the pictures and drawings and all detailed how it's going to be. It's going to be inside and out. Everything immaculate and fantastic, inspiring places of learning and growth. And I mean, and our dream and our kids are like this too. We've trained them this way. Like we always talk about like, yeah, we will.

We want a backyard that's so awesome. People are begging to do their weddings there. You with me? Like, and again, we don't all have to have this, this idea. We all have different ideals and different plans and I get it. And we all have different priorities. I understand all of that. But I'm talking about you as your best self. It's not me, it's not whatever, not the neighbor, not your mother -in -law. What would you as your best self want? Some of you might not want a yard.

Rachel Denning (46:47.309)
Some of you might want a little tiny yard. Some of you might want a huge yard with gardens and greenhouses. So you might want a ranch or a barn with chickens and animals. I get it, I love it. But I'm asking you, like, clean out the corners of your yard. Maybe it's your chicken coop needs to be cleaned for reals. Like hire a neighbor kid to clean that thing out. Maybe it's, man, I went in a, we went in a, to a pig farm in Illinois years ago.

The spider webs, I'm sure, had been there for over 100 years. I mean, there were more spiders and more spider webs. I mean, like, it was unreal, you guys. You're walking through your ducking and like, the entire was just covered, literally just covered. Like, wah, man. And maybe it was so the flies stayed down, right? There's no flies in a place like that. Oh, man. But just go through your whole life and look at your car.

Now look at your car, inside out, does it function? Is the old piece of junk falling apart? And sometimes you keep the old piece of junk on purpose and it serves its purpose to remind your kids as perspective or a little beat up truck that you don't have to worry about scratching or whatever. I get it, but just go through, examine your car. Is it filthy? Is it gross? Is it dirty? Mine needs to be cleaned. I hired somebody to clean the outside. Wow, what a transformation, right? And I do that often, but he didn't have the time to get the inside, so I need him to go through.

I can see right now that the kids had dropped some stuff in here and we need to clean it up, right? You with me? So examine the areas, which areas of your life are you leaving unattended or undone? Why? And maybe you do this mentally, you go through, excuse me, you go through with a notebook and your study journal or something and just say, why, why, why is that undone? Why have I neglected that? Some of you are like, I'm going to get to that, I'm going to get to that. You've been saying that for years.

Now there's also times, right? There's times and seasons. Remember that too, there are times and seasons. There are times when you're so busy building your business that you neglect your yard. Right? Or there's a time when you're like, man, I'm getting the whole house on the whole yard. We're getting everything dialed in. So this is a place we want to be. That's inspiring uplifting. Like this is where we want to spend our lives and raise our kids and grandkids come over. Right. And so then other areas might get neglected. So it's, it's purposeful procrastination.

Rachel Denning (49:10.573)
Unless you've been saying that for months or years or decades, then this is an excuse, it's a problem, it's a pattern of bad habits, gotta stop. But there are times you might say, you know what, that corner over there, I am going to purposely leave neglected right now because I'm gonna work on something else. But again, the idea, I'm gonna hold up this ideal. When we increase our capacity and we become holistically optimized, yes, you.

can manage all of these areas of your life and you can get the corners clean and you can keep them clean. I know you can do this. You can smash this. You can make it happen. It's totally possible and you can do it. So just pick a corner. So do this, hopefully you do this mental examination with Riley. I can see some of you in my mind's eye walking through your house and your yard and like focusing on things, maybe taking notes. Go ahead and do this mentally and then do it physically.

which areas of your life, which corners you're gonna start working on. Let's get it right now and make a decision and pick some. And in fact, like don't, in fact, right now where you're feeling the inspiration, the desire to do it, take action now on something. Even if you just literally walk into your closet, grab a shirt that you've never wore that's horrible and go either throw it away or put it in a bag. Maybe you're walking in your closet right now with a big, a grocery sack or a big garbage sack and just dump out all the things you're gonna go donate.

Right? Or walk into your garage and grab that box of stuff you know you've been wanting to get rid of and just get rid of it right now. Put it in the trunk, take it to the donation center or go throw something away. That broken whatever that's just been there, the unfixing, just go grab a light bulb and change it out right now. Just take action on something. And maybe it's mentally, maybe it's like, okay, done. I've been addicted to this little thing on my phone or device or whatever. I've been addicted to this thing. Maybe you have...

a problem with alcohol or, or maybe smoking or tobacco or some kind of substance abuse or caffeine drinks. And you're just like, I'm done. I'm done. You've been saying you've done. Now we've done. Just go throw it all away. Get rid of it. And don't ever bring it back in your house again. Ever. Like raise your standard, clean out the corners of your mind, your spirit, your body, your whole life. Take action on something right now. And then I invite you actually to make a list and prioritize the list. Find the corners, so to speak, literal or figurative.

Rachel Denning (51:34.381)
What are the corners of your life and outline them all up? What are the things that have been undone, neglected, unkept, or dark little corners? What are all things that need to be dressed? Make a list, put the list up in your bedroom or bathroom right there, and just start going through the corners of your life. And this may take a while. Some of you may just in the weekend, just like, ah, I'm doing the whole thing and knock it all out. And some of you are like, this might take, this strategically might take weeks or months, but you go through your whole life and get the corners of your life cleaned out and cleared out.

watch how much better you feel, how much more energy and influence you have how it changes all the people around you and your interactions with life and and your whole optimization. Man, this is awesome. So get after my friends and watch how it improves dramatically improves the whole quality of your life. Love you guys reach upward.